As we die hard Star Wars fans began to devour and over analyze the Prequels, a very ill concieved "theory" emerged. This theory was that Senator/Chancellor Palpatine was in fact a clone of Darth Sidious. The origins of this theory may have been found in the Expanded Universe, where there was an actual plot line of Emperor Palpatine keeping clones of himself in order to maintain immortality. The idea being that he could transfer his force essence into a new body when needed. This idea has nothing to do with the canon of the films however.

Others believed that the connection between Palpatine and Sidious was too obvious. Lucas couldn't possiblty be making it so simple, there must be a "twist" coming as is so popular in movie making today. There were even some who believed that Lucas was borrowing from history with a Remus and Romulus style deception.

All of these theories were of course wrong. This is why they were wrong. They were wrong because they ignored the entire point of the character of Palpatine/Sidious. He is "inSidious", thus the name. He is there as a Satanic force, a tempter and deceiver. The entire point of the character is that he is able to mask his true evil nature from even the Jedi. He exposes the flaws in other characters. The Jedi were too rigid, to arrogant so see what was literally right in front of their faces. Anakin was far too trusting because Palpidious was the only one telling him what he wanted to hear. The only one validating his selfish thoughts and impulses. In Palpatine and Anakin we are seeing Satan and Faust. If we are to look to an example of Roman history, we should look at Caesar, not Remus.

In the end Sidious was able to pretend to be Palpatine because he was able to expose and exploit the weaknesses of everyone around him, including the senate. Using security as an excuse to gain power may indeed echo the current state of affairs of the Bush administration but the concept is nothing new and I don't think Revenge Of The Sith is an attack on George Bush.

Palpidious is a warning to take care of your intentions and goals and what you are willing to do to achieve them. Palpidious is a warning to keep watch of what is going on around you. Darth Sidious never needed a clone to achieve his goals. By the time he was Senator, his goal was already met.

Meet Emperor Darth Sidious Palpatine. Master of evil.